LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. It now counts more than 800 million users worldwide and over 23 million in France.
This social network is unique in many ways, which is why advertising on LinkedIn requires a specific approach. Unlike other social platforms where people go primarily to be entertained, LinkedIn users are there to network, stay informed, and find jobs. That different usage pattern calls for a different approach to paid social.
First, on LinkedIn, it is primarily B2B companies that run ads. Most users on the platform are connected during working hours and are therefore not in the mindset to make personal purchases. LinkedIn Ads is more of a tool for generating qualified leads and/or building brand awareness.
What audiences can you target on LinkedIn?
The audience granularity offered by LinkedIn Ads allows B2B companies to target the people most likely to become prospects or customers.
You can define audiences by company type or size, job title, seniority level, industry, education level, skills, and more. This level of targeting precision is not available on any other network. Another advantage of this targeting is the confidence you can place in it. Users themselves fill out their profiles in detail, unlike other networks where cookies are mostly responsible for determining audience categories.
In addition, as on other advertising platforms, you can target retargeting audiences such as website visitors, customer lists, or people who have interacted with a contact form, an image, or a video.
To wrap up on audiences, we recommend avoiding launching campaigns with audience sizes below 15,000 people. For lead generation campaigns, we recommend an audience size between 100,000 and 120,000 people.
How much does advertising on LinkedIn Ads cost?
Another distinctive feature of LinkedIn Ads is the cost. To start, it is not possible to run ads on LinkedIn with a budget below $10 per day.
It is also important to know that CPCs are higher than on other social networks. However, this metric needs to be put in context, because when a conversion is generated on LinkedIn, average order values are generally much higher than on other platforms.
This higher advertising cost is a direct result of the quality and granularity of the audiences available on the platform. Costs increase further when targeting "director" level categories, who are typically the primary decision-makers within organizations.
Beyond these targeting and budget specifics, LinkedIn Ads offers essentially the same features as other advertising platforms. Here are the main ad formats available:
- Image Ads: appearing in the news feed, this format features an image, a headline, and a description.
- Video Ads: appearing in the news feed, this format features a video (30 seconds maximum, don't forget subtitles), a headline, and a description.
- Carousel Ads: up to 10 cards (3 to 4 recommended).
- Lead Ads: a native, pre-filled form (avoid asking for too much information, especially phone numbers, which can often scare prospects away. As a rule, we recommend keeping it to no more than 5 fields).
- Dynamic Ads: automatically personalized ads (we recommend this format for the "candidate" objective, when companies are looking to recruit).
- Text Ads: only available on desktop, this format is similar to Facebook's "right column" ad and allows you to add a headline, an image, and a short description.
It is worth noting that on LinkedIn Ads, only one ad format per campaign can be used. That said, we recommend having four different creative variations for each campaign.
What are the creative best practices for LinkedIn Ads?
On the creative side, it is recommended to use visuals that stand out and to develop a strong brand identity that your audience will immediately recognize when they come across one of your ads.
You also need to be very sharp with your messaging and value proposition. You need to grab your audience's attention and convey the benefit of your product or service in just a few words.
Finally, be compelling, use action verbs, and include a clear CTA. And above all, make sure your ads are optimized for mobile!
Would you like guidance on your digital marketing strategy? Feel free to reach out!
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